Donald Trumps golf outings have cost Americans more than $100 million since his return to the White House

A passion that costs Americans dearly. Since his return to the White House in January 2025, Donald Trump has played golf more than one day out of four on average, at a total cost of $101.2 million, according to a Huff Post investigation.

“While gas prices soar and Americans across the country are facing a worsening affordability crisis, the president has squandered over $100 million of taxpayer money by making promotional appearances on his golf courses and rubbing elbows with millionaires and billionaires,” commented Jordan Libowitz from the watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington.

“If his goal was truly to help struggling Americans, he could start by not spending their money on his golf courses,” he lamented. If the president continues at this rate, his passion for golf will have cost taxpayers $300 million by the end of his second term.

Since taking office in 2025 until March 28th, the billionaire has spent no less than 110 days on a golf course he owns, including 56 times at his Mar-a-Lago residence in Palm Beach, which resulted in at least 24 trips. This destination is costly as a single trip costs $3.4 million, due to the extensive security measures required, including surveillance of the Atlantic Ocean off Palm Beach, as reported by American media.

“Time dedicated to executive affairs”

Apart from security, his internal trips to Doral (Florida), Bedminster (New Jersey), or Jupiter (Florida) represent significant costs, between expenses related to Air Force One flights and the transport of the entourage’s vehicles using C-17 cargo planes.

To date, his most expensive trip was the $9.7 million one he made last summer to his hotel complexes in Scotland, which included his participation in the inauguration of a new golf course on his Aberdeen property. Recently, the White House has begun to classify Trump’s golf outings as “time dedicated to executive affairs.”

Yet, before his election in 2016, Donald Trump did not hesitate to criticize former President Barack Obama’s golf outings. He even promised during his first campaign that he would be too busy to play golf. Obama’s golf outings were much cheaper than Trump’s, as the former Democratic president mainly played at Andrews Air Force Base, just a few minutes from the White House.